Triage center funding plan on the table

Thursday, Aug. 12, 2004 | 11:18 a.m.

A funding plan to keep the Community Triage Center open through next June will be considered Monday by a public board of area hospital administrators.

The Clark County Health District's Facilities Advisory Board will consider at a 3:30 p.m. meeting at the district's 625 Shadow Lane headquarters a proposal to provide $2.3 million to WestCare, a nonprofit group that operates the center for chronic drunks and the mentally ill.

The plan is designed to keep the 56-bed center open until the 2005 Legislature can consider reinstating more than $1 million of funding promised by the state before the center opened in January 2003. The facility at 930 N. Fourth St. is expected to treat about 9,000 people this year.

The triage center sees in a month about 750 patients who are suffering from mental health or substance abuse crises. About 7,200 who are expected to use the facility this year are homeless or indigent, WestCare said.

Last fall WestCare officials cut about a third of the triage center's original staff of 60 and reduced the number of ambulances it uses from three to one in the wake of the funding shortage.

"It is important to keep the triage center open because it keeps people out of overcrowded emergency rooms -- it's an excellent safety valve for the system," said Rory Chetelat, Emergency Medical Services officer for the county health district, which serves as the staff for the Facilities Advisory Board.

The board is composed of representatives from 12 acute care hospitals, Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services and Montevista Hospital, a private facility for mentally ill and substance abuse patients who have health insurance.

The triage center nearly closed July 1 because of the funding shortage. But the WestCare Foundation Board voted to keep it going after the city of Las Vegas and Clark County pledged $163,000 in emergency funding to finance the center's operations through August.

"These are are just stop-gap interim solutions to get us to the next legislative session," Chetelat said.

The proposed temporary hospital funding combined with money from government entities, Chetelat said, is considerably short of the $3.8 million that was supposed to be provided in equal increments by the state, area hospitals, Clark County and local municipalities.

The operations budget for the center called for $1.27 million from area hospitals, $1.27 million from the state and $1.27 million from the local governments. The municipalities' contributions were to be: $544,000 from Clark County; $434,000 from Las Vegas; $170,000, Henderson; $110,000, North Las Vegas; and $13,000, Boulder City.

The state, however, provided only about half of its share, mostly in federal funds from the Bureau of Drug and Alcohol Abuse that were funneled through the state. The state failed to fund the rest through an appropriations bill before the 2003 Legislature and later before the Interim Finance Committee.

After the state balked, area municipalities, which had budgeted their shares for fiscal 2005 beginning July 1, did not immediately release their shares for the project.

That prompted the decision to close the center, which in turn caused Clark County to pledge $91,000 and Las Vegas to earmark $72,000 to keep it going. Should the hospitals approve the larger infusion of money on Monday, area municipalities are expected to vote on releasing funds for the project at September meetings.

"Without (the triage center), our local police and paramedics have no choice but to transport people who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol or are experiencing mental health issues to one of two places -- jail or local emergency rooms," Clark County Manager Thom Reilly said.

"It's far more humane and economically feasible for the community to operate the triage center as a one-stop location for helping people who need crisis intervention services but don't require in-patient psychiatric care and haven't committed any crimes," he said.

Chetelat said the memorandum of understanding to provide the funding is on Monday's facility advisory board agenda because that board offers the only public meeting of hospital chief executive officers or their representatives. Health District staff has not offered the board a recommendation on the proposal.